Emmaus Community: Efficacy of a Treatment Program for Women Religious

This study was designed as a confirmation of the empirical evaluation of the efficacy of Emmaus Community, a residential treatment facility for women in religious life. Although a previous evaluation by Borrine and Handal (1989) provided preliminary support for the program's efficacy, their study was vulnerable to the internal threats to validity of history, maturation and statistical regression. This study provided controls for these threats and analyzed data from another cohort of participants. Results revealed that participants reported significant decrements in their level of pathological distress; they moved from an impaired to a non-impaired status on an empirically validated measure of psychological adjustment. Also, they reported significant improvements in their interpersonal relationships and their ability to express and receive a variety of affects.